This post was supposed to be an extension of the 3peat post but the scope of this post goes way beyond just celebrating this year’s Spelling Bee champion. Couple of years back, we ran a post on Why are South Asian kids so successful in spelling bees? and came away with, among other reasons, family structure and support as the primary reason.

Slate has an interesting theory on the success of Indian kids in the Spelling Bees: a pipeline of talented spellers created by nationwide organizations like the North South Foundation.

The NSF circuit consists of 75 chapters run by close to 1,000 volunteers. The competitions, which began in 1993, function as a nerd Olympiad for Indian-Americans—there are separate divisions for math, science, vocab, geography, essay writing, and even public speaking—and a way to raise money for college scholarships for underprivileged students in India. There is little financial reward for winners (just a few thousand dollars in college scholarships) compared with the $40,000 winning purse handed out each year by Scripps.

The seeds for this current wave of domination by Indian kids was sown by Nupur Lala the 1999 winner who was featured in a documentary Spellbound. The Indian domination over the past decade and half can be chronicled in two parts: before and after Spellbound.

Just as Kavya Shivashankar has inspired the next wave of Indian spellers, Kavya found her bee mojo during the post-Spellbound boom. Before Spellbound, the 2002 documentary that featured Indian-American Nupur Lala’s run to the 1999 Scripps title, many first-generation South Asian parents saw NSF as a way for their children to assimilate—the best way to understand a culture, after all, is to learn its language. They used the North South Foundation events as a sort of SAT prep, teaching their children to use phonetics, etymology, and word roots to suss out answers.

After Spellbound, that changed a bit. After Balu Natarajan (winning word: milieu) became the first Indian-American to win Scripps back in 1985, he went on to a career in sports medicine. When Lala did it in 1999 with logorrhea, she became a movie star. (OK, a movie star and a neuroscientist.) Kavya has called Lala an inspiration—the license plate of Mirle’s teal minivan reads “SPL BND.” She’s far from alone. In 2002, NSF had less than 20 chapters pulling in about 500 mostly middle-school-age spellers. Then pop culture galvanized an expansion to elementary schoolers; today, six times as many students compete in North South Foundation spelling events.

Kavya Shivashankar, the 2009 winner is a former NSF champion and legend of sorts in the NSF circuit.

Here’s another caveat to participating in the Spelling Bee:

You have to be more than a great speller to qualify for the National Bee—you also have to live in a school district with a sponsoring newspaper or community organization. These days, parents seem to be paying a lot more attention to such logistics. When Mirle Shivashankar realized in 2005 that there was just one Scripps sponsor in all of Kansas, he beat the bushes to ensure that more kids from the state—his daughter, for one—would have the chance to go to nationals. Kavya subsequently gained all of her berths to the nationals by virtue of a brand-new sponsor, the Olathe News.

The force seems to be strong with the Indian community in the US when it comes to education related events like the Spelling Bee thanks to an ever-growing pipeline of contestants produced by events like the NSF Bee. American football and basketball have a large contingent of players fed by pipelines in inner-city schools. The presence of such pipelines fosters competition and increases not only the quantity but also quality of the contestants. The National Spelling Bee appears to be fed by pipelines in places like Hindus temples, Indian cultural centers and drab school auditoriums.

The future for Indian-American contestants in the Spelling Bee is not only bright but also significantly younger. In fact, the future is all of 8 years old. [KC]

North South Foundation winners don’t have to worry about Kavya Shivashankar anymore—she has retired. At the Shawnee NSF contest this April, Swetha Jasti placed first, with a perfect score that qualified her for NSF nationals later this summer. But unfortunately for Jasti, she won’t make it to Scripps this year. When the National Spelling Bee starts up this week, their region will be represented by a surprise challenger: Kavya’s 8-year-old sister, Vanya, who drubbed Jasti in the National Spelling Bee’s Olathe qualifier.
For youngsters like Vanya, this is Scripps’ best selling point: Whereas the North South Foundation still divides contestants into junior and senior levels, the National Spelling Bee has no minimum age requirement. Vanya, who has taken to referring to herself and her sister as the Eli and Peyton Manning of spelling, will be the youngest competitor in Washington, D.C., this year. When ESPN recently showed up in Kansas to film a miniprofile for the contest, she grinned unabashedly. “Now it’s my turn,” she proclaimed to the room full of cameras. As with most things in the life of an NSF standout, the moment seemed well-rehearsed.

Wow! No pressure there, Vanya! By the way, Vanya did not make it to the semifinals this year but age is on her side and she appears upbeat about her chances in future years.

Indian teachers have been sadists since the days of yore and folklore, when a certain guru displayed the ultimate feat in nepotism, bias, discrimination and, while we are at it, sadism, when he demanded that a certain “outstanding” student of his give up his thumb, so his favorite disciple could gain an unfair advantage.

Growing up, beatings in school were standard fare. In fact, teachers invented ways to inflict the most brutal of assaults on yours truly and fellow students, and it was all good under the guise of a. He deserved it or b. Some literal interpretation of spare the rod, spoil the child. And such brutal beatings were acceptable to not only teachers but most parents also.

There’s a new addition to the usually stale curriculum of a school in Surat: walking on burning coals and glass shards. We’re not talking of an S&M school either. Students at this school were made to walk on coals “as an exercise in enhancing determination”. So where were the parents, you ask? They were right there, as onlookers to this ghastly deed. [Yahoo!]

Some in tears and most in obvious agony. Students, only 10 to 14 years old, of a school in Gujarat’s Surat town were made to walk barefoot on a bed of burning coal and glass shards as an exercise in enhancing determination while parents and elders watched mutely, an eyewitness said.

Most parents send their kids to school to become engineers, doctors, scientists, accountants, lawyers, leaders, teachers, sportspeople and so on. When was the last time you heard of any successful person admitting that they are that way because, their school made them walk on coals and glass shards? What does not kill you makes you stronger, goes the outdated cliche. In this case, what did not kill them scarred them, probably for life.

As for the outrage:

Kalpesh Patel, one of the directors of the school, said that invitations had also been extended to children of other schools and their parents to join the camp. ‘We have not had any complaint so far,’ he added. According to him a total of 126 students had taken part in the events and only one girl broke down before walking over the firebed and was promptly withdrawn from it.

So, a student refused to walk over burning coals and glass shards. I wonder why? Shame on her, I guess. I can just picture some future parent-student conversations.

“Mummy mummy, they made us walk over coals and glass shards today in school”.
“Vary good beta, next time I hope they beat you with a cricket bat and make you lie down on a bed of nails. It’s good for enhancing determination, na?”

From ibiblio.org

India-Burma
2 April 1942–28 January 1945

“We got a hell of a beating,” Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell told the crowd of reporters in the Indian capital of New Delhi. It was May 1942, and the American general, who had only recently arrived in the Far East to assume the position of chief of staff to Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, was chafing at failure in his first command in the field. Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the previous December, the Japanese had won victory after victory, extending their empire from Wake Island in the Pacific to Malaya and Singapore in Southeast Asia. When Stilwell had arrived in the embattled Chinese capital of Chungking in March, the Japanese were already driving into Burma, capturing the capital of Rangoon on 6 March. The American general took command of two Chinese divisions and, in cooperation with the British and Indians, tried to stem the Japanese onslaught. Defeated, he and his staff endured a rugged, 140-mile hike over jungle-covered mountains to India. By occupying Burma, the Japanese had not only gained access to vast resources of teak and rubber, but they had dosed the Burma Road, 700 miles of dirt highway that represented China’s last overland link with the outside world. The reopening of an overland route to China would be the major American goal, indeed obsession, in the theater throughout the campaign.

A colleague at work bought some currency from pre-colonial India. His Dad (an American Soldier-not related to the extract above) had been in India during the second world war, stationed as an aircraft spotter around the time when Japan was officially into Burma – which was also a British colony.

Here are some  pictures of what I saw today would like to share -

Uber Coin

Pre-colonial Indian currency (flip side of above pic)

Burmese Rupee in 1942, issued by the Japanese.

The language on the coins is fascinating, I can identify Hindi, Urdu and Telugu (apart from English) on the coins – the fourth is somewhat confusing for me, could be Gujarati or Punjabi. Some of the shapes, the four sided 1/2 anna and the wavy circle shaped 1 anna are very similar to 5 paisa and 10 paisa coins that I was used to in late 80’s. They soon lost any real monetary value and I haven’t seen them in a long long time. The donut shaped 1 pice is a unique shape though.Also growing up, the terms like charana (char-4 anna ~ 25 paisa), attana (aat-8 anna ~ 50 paisa) and barana (barah-12 anna ~75paisa) were quite common, when that amount of currency actually could get you something, like a bunch of fresh cilantro, or a couple of pani puris on the road side.

Almost all coins are either King George V or VI, a more detailed history of King George V and King George VI coins can be found here and here, for the numismatists among you.

And here is the Rupee, just after the amount of silver in the alloy used to make it was reduced (source: from links above)

One Rupee in 1944

Courtesy: Wikipedia

One most important thing that is inherently Indian, is the respect given to Gurus in India. The first question as a graduate student the first week in Amrika was do I stand up when the professor walks in? I mean, logically I would follow what the rest of the class does, assuming there were non-Indians in the class . And from what I understand this is not the normal practice in American schools. But as a kid growing up (and fully grown up),  students in schools were expected to stand up in silence when a teacher walked in and out of the class every hour. And add to that there are Sanskrit verses like Guru strotram -

Gurur Brahma gurur Vishnu gurur devo Maheswarah
Gurur sakshat parambrahmah tasmi sri gurave namah”

Teacher’s day is special in India because of many reasons. Depending on the type of school you went to – you may have been accustomed to different traditions. My school, would follow teacher’s day every year with a speech or two about Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, first vice president and second president of independent India, Oxford fellow and knighted by the british empire and a  Bharat Ratna awardee (just in case you missed the point, his birth anniversary is celebrated as teacher’s day every year in India on September 5), and then an usually long speech about why teachers deserved respect and what they do for us, which regretfully I remember yawning about and trying to focus hard on staying awake (while standing). The worst nightmare of course was, in middle school when on that day, seniors one grade higher would enact the role of teachers and come to your class (doesn’t help if you have two elder sisters who might turn up as fake-teachers for your class ).

What’s also interesting about Sarvepalli Radhakrishan was he was one of the early philosophers who made a deep effort to bridge the eastern and western cultural concepts that we still discuss about, to this day. What we can appreciate is the idea that cultures can be bridged and his work on objectivity and theology. Looking for online books on his philosophy I found the following paragraph on Google books (Radhakrishnan: his life and ideas – By K. Satchidananda Murty, Ashok Vohra), page 192 where the authors talk about Radhakrishnan’s views on infidelity, the provision for divorce under Hindu marriage act and his disagreement with Mahatma Gandhi’s views on self-restraint as the ‘moral way of birth control’ (pretty sure they didn’t teach this in my middle school).

And here’s a quote attributed to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan -

It is not God that is worshipped but the group or authority that claims to speak in His name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority not violation of integrity. link

– Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Hope you learned something new today. Happy Teacher’s day!

Its been a while since the slacker desi housekeeper had her say.

Summer is a time to relax- school is out, here in California at least the days are too beautiful to spend slaving over elaborate meals when  the outside beckons. I therefore present tried and tested super easy ways to put food on the table. This post is actually dedicated to those days when there is barely anything in the ‘fridge and you are feeling too damn lazy to go grocery shopping!

1. Desi homes often have left over rice.

Here are 2 recipes that use plain, leftover cooked rice.

- I call this one “Hostel rice” because thats what we used to eat often at hostel ( that’s “dorm” to you Amreekans!).  Heat a little  oil in a “Kadahi”  or saucepan. Add some cumin seeds ( jeera). After the seeds have spluttered, break a  two or three eggs into the mix. Scramble the eggs with a spoon. Add salt,  pepper, chilli powder ( optional). If you have some shredded cheese ( any kind!) , add a handful and mix into the eggs. ( You can omit this step). Add the rice, mix through. Serve hot.

- Standard “Masala bhat”. Heat oil. Add mustard seeds and one dried red chilli. Add chopped onions and curry leaves ( kadi patta). Add turmeric( haldi) , salt chilli powder.When onions are brown add rice and mix.  Serve hot.

2. Here is something I invented on one of those days when I was totally out of inspiration for dinner. Its a spin on traditional “kadhi”

Heat oil. Add chopped onions and fry till translucent. Add salt, turmeric powder ( haldi).  Add a few large spoons of Sour cream ( I use Daisy – any brand will do). Mix well. If you have some yogurt, add that too. This dish is surprisingly tasty when served with hot rotis!

3. Here is my favorite , super quick desi  tandoori paneer pizza recipe.

The base for this is frozen plain cheese pizza- you can use any brand but I am partial to “Tony’s’ which I get at my local Safeway. Its cheap and delicious. Note that you want the plain cheese pizza with no additional toppings.

Chop up some store bought paneer into cubes.Chop up a small onion , Mix paneer cubes and onion in a bowl. Add a teaspoon of “Tandoori Masala”. You can use any brand – they are usually marketed as “Tandoori Chicken Masala”. If you like spice, add some chopped green chillis. Squeeze juice of one lime and let the mixture marinate for around 15 minutes. In the interim, preheat the oven per the instructions given for the frozen pizza. Top the cheese pizza with the paneer mix and cook per instructions. Make sure the paneer has browned a bit. Believe me , this makes one super delicious pizza!

Happy slacking!